A big day for Vivo as the company wraps off the cover from the much-awaited APEX concept phone market ready variants. The company unveiled two variants as NEX S (Ultimate) and NEX A. As expected the NEX S is the flagship model with the best possible hardware and few special features whereas the NEX A is the toned down model with upper mid-range hardware. The APEX concept phone was showcased at the MWC 2018 and since then it was one of the most awaited smartphones of this year.

Both the devices are certainly dream come true for those who are looking for complete bezel-less smartphones without notch at the top. The NEX series smartphones have a screen-to-body ratio of 91.24%, which certainly puts it ahead than most of the bezel-less devices in the market. Both the NEX S and NEX A are featuring a 6.59-inches Super AMOLED display with Full HD+ screen resolution of 1080 x 2316 pixels. The display aspect ratio is 19.3:9, it is highest than any other smartphone available in the market.

The NEX S (Ultimate) features the in-glass fingerprint scanner like the X21 UD. The users will get a large space to play with as the device features pop up selfie camera of 8MP with f/2.0 aperture. The only prominent bezel is on the bottom chin. The company also ditched the traditional earpiece in favor of new "Screen SoundCasting" tech which works pretty great.

Under the hood, the NEX S has the Qualcomm's latest Octa-core Snapdragon 845 SoC with 8GB RAM. There are two variants with either 128GB or 256GB storage. On the other hand, the NEX A is running on the Qualcomm's Snapdragon 710 chipset with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. Both the devices lack support for memory expansion via MicroSD card. The NEX A also doesn't have in-glass fingerprint scanner instead it has a traditional fingerprint scanner on the rear in the center below the dual cameras.

Despite being on top in almost all departments the device doesn't have the best in class cameras. The primary sensor on the rear is 12MP with f/1.8 whereas the secondary sensor is 5MP with f/2.4. It is the same sensor we witnessed on the X21 UD, So you can't expect something extraordinary in the camera department.

A fairly large 4,000mAh battery cell is on board to keep the lights on. It supports fast charging and shipped with a 22.5W charger straight out of the box. As OS the devices are pre-installed with Android Oreo 8.1 based Functouch OS 4.0 with a number of AI features. Being the premium smartphones both the NEX S and NEX A come with Jovi AI Assistant which can be accessed by pressing the physical button the side pretty much similar like Samsung's Bixby.

Specs

NEX S (Ultimate)

Display

6.59-inches Super AMOLED

Screen resolution

1080 x 2316 pixels

Chipset

Snapdragon 845

RAM

8GB

Storage

128, 256 Non-Expandable

Rear cameras

12MP with f/1.8 + 5MP with f/2.4 aperture

Front camera

8MP with f/2.0 aperture

Battery

4,000mAh

OS

Android Oreo 8.1

Dimensions

162 x 77 x 7.98mm

Fingerprint scanner

In-glass

Specs

NEX A

Display

6.59-inches Super AMOLED

Screen resolution

1080 x 2316 pixels

Chipset

Snapdragon 710

RAM

6GB

Storage

128 Non-Expandable

Rear cameras

12MP with f/1.8 + 5MP with f/2.4 aperture

Front camera

8MP with f/2.0 aperture

Battery

4,000mAh

OS

Android Oreo 8.1

Dimensions

162 x 77 x 7.98mm

Fingerprint scanner

Rear

As far as availability is a concern both the devices will go up for pre-orders from June 13th and will be released from June 23rd. The NEX S base variant with 128GB storage can be grabbed for CNY4,498 ($702) whereas the top of the line variant can be purchased at CNY4,998 ($780).

The NEX A can also be pre-ordered from tomorrow at a price tag of CNY 3,898($608) with a release from June 23rd. At the moment it is still in the dark when the devices will be available in other markets. However considering the X21 UD global markets release, we can expect both the devices will be available globally pretty soon. In the end, we would like to hear our readers thoughts regarding the NEX S and NEX A announcement in the comments section below.

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The vivo NEX A isn't still available online. To be notified when it becomse available click here.